Around the State: March 25, 2024

The counties and cities within the state of North Dakota hold many interesting news stories.

Here are just a few of the feature stories that others are reading in communities around the state.

Documentary by White Shield director

The documentary short film "We Ride for Her" made its premiere at the SXSW Film Festival recently, and one of the film's directors resides in White Shield.

Prairie Rose Seminole's film follows The Medicine Wheel Riders, who are a group of Indigenous women motorcycle riders, as they ride to raise awareness for the over 5,500 Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives (MMIW/R).

"We Ride for Her" chronicles the Medicine Wheel riders as they organize an annual ride from Arizona to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota, where they shine light upon the underreported issue.

Besides its world premiere, the film is a candidate for this year's Documentary Short Competition. Winners were announced March 13.

Seminole will be showing her film in Bismarck at the Dakota Film Festival April 4-5.

"After we do the short but spread-out festival tour, I hope to bring it home and show it to the community (White Shield)," Seminole said.

(Story by Tyson Matthews, the McLean County Independent)

Dunseith teachers in the "Big Apple"

A quarter of staff members from Dunseith School recently returned from a memorable trip to New York City.

Principal Kerry Azure was one of the four members on the trip and helped it get put together thanks to some grant writing.

The staff attended an Innovative Summit February 27 - March 2. While attending the NYC Institute, the group was given the opportunity to visit the Today Show. Included in the taping was a segment by Jenna Bush-Hager, who is a daughter of President George Bush. Hager was celebrating her five year anniversary of the Read with Jenna segment. It was announced during the segment that a set of books from all the authors involved over the years are being sent to a library in all 50 states in the country.

The group also got to visit the 9/11 Memorial, Times Square and explored around the Big Apple.

(Story by John Rosinski, the Turtle Mountain Star)

Minot mulls hotel licenses

The city of Minot needs to begin licensing the community's hotels to enforce a higher quality of service, according to Mayor Tom Ross.

Ross said he plans to place the matter of hotel licensing on the Minot City Council agenda for discussion, possibly at the March 18 meeting, and has asked city staff to begin drafting a licensing ordinance.

He said issues ranging from dirty rooms to rude staff recently came to his attention in an extended conversation with an upset Canadian visitor who shared a bad experience with bed bugs and commented on the frequent poor reviews that Minot hotels receive online.

Additionally, Ross said, he has heard concerns from other Canadian guests and has been aware that certain hotels have been problematic.

(Story taken from the Journal, Crosby)

Emails resurface in statewide investigation

North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley tells the McKenzie County Farmer and KTGO Radio that more than 2,000 state emails and text messages of his predecessor, Wayne Stenehjem, that were once thought deleted have been recovered. The messages could be pivotal in the trial of former state Senator Ray Holmberg.

The trial is set to begin in April and Wrigley's office has been leading the prosecution.

Holmberg, who served for decades as a Republican from Grand Forks, has been charged with felony counts of possessing child pornography and traveling overseas for the purpose of engaging in commercial sex with a minor. He has pleaded not guilty.

Stenehjem was serving as the state's Attorney General when he died unexpectedly of cardiac arrest on January 28, 2022.

In an interview with Scott Hennen on the "What's On Your Mind" program, Wrigley said it was a stunning development that the messages resurfaced.

Since Stenehjem and Holmberg were friends, investigators believed that communications between the two could shed light on the case. Political observers say the fact that Liz Brocker, Stenehjem's executive assistant, directed the state email account to be deleted the day after he died raises serious questions about what might have been deleted.

Conversations led investigators to conclude that information from the phone would have likely been backed up by the state's IT system and it was there.

Wrigley says the recovered file is a "complete mirror image" of Stenehjem's phone at the time of his death, and according to Wrigley, a "very significant volume of text messages that may assist us in the Ray Holmberg prosecution."

(Story by Steve Hallstrom, the McKenzie County Farmer)

Claiming the unclaimed

The unclaimed has finally found a home.

A mile long stretch of gravel road that makes up part of the southern city limits of Lisbon has pretty much been unclaimed for a couple of decades.

It may have gone unclaimed, but it hasn't been ignored.

Over the years city and county officials, and a private party or two, have shook hands and kept the road maintained with a load of gravel here and a half hour of blading there. If it snows, remove it and everybody gets along fine.

The road is a favorite route for truck traffic hoping to avoid going through downtown Lisbon. It is not, however, designated as a truck route.

Over the past year or two with new people coming on board, the handshakes didn't happen and the road, known locally as the Wil's Body Shop Road, didn't get maintained.

People began to notice.

Suddenly it was discovered that the road actually belonged to Island Park Township.

This was news to the current township board and suddenly they had a road that they were not totally prepared to maintain.

This is why Island Park board members came to Lisbon City Council recently to ask if the city would consider splitting the cost of maintenance.

It was mentioned that engineers for the Ransom County Commission have identified that road as part of a plan to designate as a truck route around the city, that could make it eligible for some state funding.

In the meantime, the Body Shop Road should see some maintenance.

(Story by Lynn Kaspari, the Ransom County Gazette)